Rose Red
by TariNolatari
Summary: William and Anna adopt a thirteen-year-old girl from the gnerically named Adoption Center. Raising a daughter in a year! They cannot expose the dark nature of the Center. Written for NaNoWriMo. I hate the summary character limit!
1. Prologue

Full Summary:

Story I am writing for NaNoWriMo. Please excuse any grammar/spelling errors, formatting problems, and typos.

_William and Anna decide to adopt a child from the generically named Adoption Center. However, they soon discover that the Center isn't what it seems. Through bribes and blackmail, the couple are forced to keep the dark nature of the Center quiet. Not to mention their new daughter, who has lived her thirteen years in a bathroom-sized room and has never seen another living thing until now._

_Loosely based on the Emilie Autumn song by the same name. As I live in Maryland, I will be including a calico cat and Black-Eyed Susans. Story is posted on deviantART and . (Yes, I am aware that it should not be on FF.n. However, for certain reasons I cannot get a FictionPress account until January.)_

Now, if you will excuse me, I must get back to writing.

* * *

><p>The doorbell rings.<p>

A young woman, eyes red from tears, walks to answer it.

As she opens the door, she discovers that the caller is an official-looking middle-aged man.

It is clear they have never met, though they know very well each other s business here.

A few polite words are exchanged, and she leads him into the parlor.

The furniture and d cor all go nicely together, but for one, notable, element: a worn,, old-looking bassinet.

The man quickly strides over to the bassinet. He peers inside. Asks the woman a few questions in a very professional manner, to which she responds with simple, one-word answers.

The man takes the handle of the bassinet and shows himself out.

Now alone in the parlor, the woman falls onto the sofa and weeps.


	2. Ch 1

The overseer stared blandly down at the screen depicting cell #12 in real time.  
>Good night, Number eight-five-nine-five-eight-five-four, he said monotonously, reading the number off of the label below the screen. I love you. He had heard that it was good to talk to plants, so shouldn t orphans be the same? Although she probably couldn t hear him. Oh, well. He shut off the screen for the night and moved on to #44.<p>"You know what would be absolutely wonderful? asked a round-faced woman in her thirties.<br>Yes, dear? The woman ignored her husband s disinterst. If we had- Please don t start this again- A child. She finished.  
>We can always adopt. We ve discussed this before. Yes, but our own child! To love and cherish! To see ourselves in their face! Our own! The man sighed. Anna, you know we can t do that. I m sorry. But we can always adopt a child. We wouldn t have to see ourselves in their fece to see ourselves in their heart. Anna huffed. Fine, then. We ll talk tomorrow. The man, William, chuckled. He knew defeat when he saw it.<br> 


	3. Ch 2

A couple came to us today. Anything special? Not really. Then, why d you mention it? I dunno. But they seemed a little off. A little dangerous. Dangerous? For who? The Center. They seemed like they might expose something. Anyone can be bribed. If you re sure

Is it just me, or was there something weired about that place? asked William.  
>Well, do you want a kid, or not? One day you re all. yeah! , and the next you re all, no1 Make up your mind! I want a child, it just seems odd. There s something going on there. Look, I m already compromising here. We get the kid there, and that s that. Sigh. Yes,, dear. <p>


	4. Ch 3

They re taking a look ath te kids today. Who? Those people I told you about yesterday. Oh. Do you think everything will go well? Yeah, it should be fine I m just worried. Don t. Anyone can be bribed.

Anna and William followed the host through the weirdly clean, white halls of the Adoption Center. Or rather, Anna dragged William down the halls after the host. What happened? Yesterday you were so reluctant! William teased his wife. He knew very well that there was little to no rhyme or reason to Anna s thoughts or actions. Listen, this day will CHANGE OUR FUTURE. Our entire LIVES. This is important!  
>He allowd himself a chuckle.<br>Don t laugh at me! This was all your idea anyway! This- The host interrupted her. Now, I need you to never speak of what you are about to see. Never. He made sure he had the couple s attention. What you see may horrify you, it may terrify you, it may make you want to tell the world about it or to never speak again. But no matter what, you must NEVER speak of it. He paused to compse his thoughts. What would it take for that to haoppen? What do you mean? To put it simply, we re bribing you. How about fifty thousand for you if you don t tell, fifty thousand from you if you do? Um, okay See? the host thought to himself, Anyone can be bribed. 


	5. Ch 4

The bribe resolved, the trio proceeded through a pair of tall double doors.  
>Now, the host began , as we proceed, you may look into the windows. If you see a child you like, you may point him or her out and we will stop. The confused couple strode in behind him, but stopped in their tracks when they saw what was past the first window. A young boy, probably about seven years old, was behind the window. His eyes were covered with a blindfold, and he didn t look well-fed. He sat apathetically on a bench attached to the wall of the tiny room behind the window. Across from the bench, there was a showerhead pouring down. In front of the window, there was a dashboard with a screen, several grey buttons, and a single red button on it. A quick look around the hall proved there to be many of such rooms, all up and down the hallway.<br>Anna gasped, horrified. William gaped too, but much less loudly and dramatically. The host continued walking, unfazsed by the sight of the children. After all, William mused, he must see this every day. He might be brainwashed too, or something. William was concluding such thoughts when his wife tapped him on the shoulder.  
>Will, dear, she said, clearly trying very hard to act, for all intents and purposes, that this was completely normal, look at that one. She s rather pratty, isn t she? Yes, she is. She looks a bit dull, though. he replied, trying to chuckle a bit, anything to lift the mood.<br>It didn t work. They continued onward.  
>Some time passed. How long was this hallway, Anna wondered? They must have a hundred children here, poor things, who had never known another life. Not to mention the other hallways she had seen branching off oft htis one. She shuddered.<br>As they turned a sudden corner into one of the aforementioned hallways, William stopped short.  
>That s her, he said, pointing to the room at the end of the short hall. Wit hthe red hair there. What, I don t even get a choice? Anna responed. She s my daughter too! So you agree? Oh, you and your damned psychology. Yes, I agree. Ah, the ginger thate. Yes she looks nice. Thiorteen years old, if I m not mistaken. Let s go make that official. Minus all the paperwork, of course. The three walked to the end of the hallway. The host put his finger over the red button on the dashboard in front of the girl s room. Before he pressed it, he asked if they were sure. They were. He pressed the button. <div> 


	6. Ch 5

It was about the most anticlimactic button-push ever. Nothing happened. Well, that s that, now, let s go sign some paperwork, said the host , in about the cheeriest voice one can have when one is arguably brainwashed. An awkward silence followed, in hich te host proceeded to lead William and Anna back up the halls frome whence they had come. When they exited the double oors at the start of the hallway, the couple were led around a corner to another, less threatening-looking hallway .The host then led them into a small, normal-looking office.  
>Papers were signed, boredom was had, and soon enough the couple were led out into the evening.<br>Now that everything has been resolved, you will be able to come and collect your new daughter tomorrow. Have a nice night!

That was rather quick, don t you think? Anna asked innocently.  
>What was? All the signing and such. Doesn t it usually take longer than that? Yes it was, but I m not going to complain about less paperwork. That can t really be what s on your mind, though, after what we ve seen today. William understood why his wife wouldn t want to talk about it, but it wasn t like her not to peak exactly her mind.<br>I know it s absolutely horrifying, but you are perfectly able to talk about it. Are you alright? No, Will, I m not alright. It s not just that what they re doing is terrible; it s that we are adopting a child from them! We re the ones keeping them in business! Anna, dear, you know that we wouldn t be able to get out of it anyway- Yes, but we could have tried! We didn t try! That is irrelevant. We might be dead now, if we had refused. Well, we got a daughter out of it . 


	7. Ch 6

Get number six-three-seven-four-sex-four-three. Alright. The redheaded girl turned her head up at the rush of cool air that hit her in the side where she sat on the Tsiiff. Startled, she backed away from it. When she felt an unfamiliar object, rough and warm and live, brush against her side, she ran to the Rannds and cowered by the Werr. The foreign Thing grabbed her wrist and pulled her to her feet. Disoriented, she tried to pull away, but the Thing proved to be much larger than she thought, and scooped her up easily into its arms. It carried her across the Err, and through the Dala Werr? Out of the Err, the world? That didn t make any sense . And yet, here she was, with a completely unfamiliar breeze blowing aroud her, bringing with it unpleasantly disorienting unfamiliar scents, noises, and light. Suddenly, she was in total Nga, darkness. She was put down on the floor. She felt an odd, cool feeling around her upper head. (Her blindfold had been taked off, but of course she didn t know this.) There was a slight flicker, and a very dim, almost imperceptible, red light filled the room. As time progressed, the light got brighter, and the hue less red, until, by ten o clock the next morning, the girl who had been blind her whole life had gotten used to the ight (with minimal pain). Once this procedure was finished, the girl was roughly made to walk (a motion which she hadn t quite got used to) to a room down the hall, where she was shoved into a pale yellow dress, the sash was pulled a bit too tight, and her hair was combed, which wasn t exactly an easy task. She was then taken into yet another room, where she waited, passing the time by practicing walking back and forth.  
>Four people walked in. She didn t recognize them. <div> 


End file.
